Re: I give up, how do I find a PC support company for friends?

On 7 Nov, 15:33, Philip Herlihy <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gaz wrote:
Adrian C wrote:
This week I have had 5 calls from very non-technical stay-at-home
folks wanting their XP PCs sorted out.

Due to commitments I'm not able to jump around and help them through
some really silly problems (like updating AV software, install their
broadband, etc...) and hold their hands explaining basic things for
the fiftieth time.

Isn't there an online directory of support companies that can visit
on a per-hour / or better per-job basis, that won't charge
excessively, and will discuss these things with customers young and
old in plain english? Not interested in firms that do *everything*
via remote desktop connections.

Location NW London.

You will find about a hundred independent one man bands who will do exactly
the kind of thing you are asking for in the Yellow Pages or the BT book..

Me included (North East London).  It's quite a tough life, having every
sort of problem thrown at you by people whose expectations can be rather
odd, and who often forget that your time is of value, and in short
supply.  On the positive side I've learned more in the last 8 years than
in the previous 20, and I do quite enjoy hand-holding people who don't
know much about all this.  I have one absolutely charming client, a
retired civil-servant, who is running a PC and a Mac without knowing
much about either, and who refers to an email as "your recent minute".
He isn't a fool, and he takes notes (how I like the ones that take
notes!) and helping him is a pleasure in itself.  (It's forced me to con
up quickly on some basics of the Mac as well!).  I've become very good
at tracking down solutions, through necessity!

In fact all of my customers are essentially agreeable.  I can say this
now having ditched a singularly unpleasant idiot of a business customer.
  If I disclose that he had 16 GB of data in Outlook Express, and had it
set to poll the server at 1m intervals (despite my sneaking it up to
3m), you'll get the idea.  He seemed to think that we had a
service-level-agreement such that no problem could ever happen on his
computer, and if anything held him up it was my fault - despite the fact
that he was always "too busy" to take my advice, and never wanted to pay
for enough time to sort things out properly.  Each of his succession of
assistants hated him, as do his various service providers.  I don't know
why I put up with him for so long.

The rest are lovely.  I do, though get tired of cleaning viruses and
configuring email, and explaining that wireless networks are glitchy in
some locations, although I never tire of demonstrating Google Earth to
new broadband users.  I prefer the occasional website or database
project, but it can be hard to find uninterrupted time to complete them.

The downside is that as your list of customers grows, your work becomes
more and more of an emergency service, like the accountant who can't
print today, and the business who discover their payroll won't work at
the last possible moment.  Long hours.  It's also quite a solitary
existence, and I do miss the politics of the office, having been a
development manager in a vast corporation.

I too avoid home visits where I can.  A surprising number of people can
be talked through the installation of VNC (with the aid of a web page)
and I do most work that way.  I configure the VNC server to accept
connections only from my static IP, and provide a script which sets up a
connection (listening viewer) when double-clicked.  Things like
non-bootable machines are brought to me, mostly - I offer a lower rate
(for work that can be done in spare moments rather that as a priority)
and if a format or scan takes 40m I don't charge for the time as I would
on-site, making it much cheaper.

I'll never be rich, or have much spare time, but I can't imagine giving
it up.

Phil, London- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Have you tried reverse VNC? It's much nicer. You create an EXE file
which when clicked will connect to the VNC server running on your PC.
No need to mess with firewalls etc, and you can brand the exe with
your company logo. Too tired to google it now, but it's way better
than doing it the other way around witn non-technical users.
.

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